The Gallup fire and police departments responded to what is believed to be a deliberately set motel fire Jan. 10 that was done by an unknown person.

Accordingly, the cause of the fire has been determined as arson. There were no reported injuries in the fire.

Capt. Marinda Spencer, public information officer with the Gallup Police Department, said officers were dispatched to the Budget Inn, 3150 W. Highway 66, at 5:37 am. Spencer said officers observed smoke coming from west side of the building and from the first floor of the structure.

“There was a male in the room trying to put out the fire,” Officer John Gonzales wrote in the police report on the matter. “Gallup Fire arrived on the scene and put out the fire.”

Gonzales recorded that he interviewed a witness at the scene who said she saw a male wearing black clothing “banging” on the door of Room 123, and said she saw the unknown male break the room window. The name of that person is not noted in the police report.

A guest of the motel initially called the police, according to Gonzales’ report.

Deepak Mehta, the owner and operator of the Budget Inn, said a female guest and a young male from North Carolina were checked into the room on Jan. 8 for two stays. He said he wasn’t exactly sure when the two checked out.

A guest interviewed at the motel said a young male is often seen “walking around doing nothing” and talking on a cell phone. He declined to give his name or any further information.

GFD RESPONDS

Gallup Deputy Fire Chief Jesus Morales said firefighters arrived at 5:44 am and discovered light smoke coming from the interior of Room 123, which is a corner unit of the two-story hotel. At least one mattress and a box spring were removed from the room, Morales said. Morales estimated damages to the motel be around $20,000.

Both police and fire personnel were on the scene for practically four hours, Spencer and Morales said.

The Budget Inn was the scene of another bad fire about three years ago. In that incident, an out-of-town woman who was renting a room died apparently of smoke inhalation after she smoked a cigarette and fell asleep with the cigarette still lit, officials said at the time.

By Bernie Dotson

Sun Correspondent

Trina Velasco has COVID-19. She is one of hundreds of thousands of people who have it. Trina Velasco is in Nevada. Her son, Dee, is in New Mexico.

Trina Velasco hasn’t seen her son in weeks. But every day he sends her prayers and texts hoping to give her the strength to keep on fighting. He said he notices that as he has been texting daily, he has begun referring to her as ‘Mama,’ returning to the name he had for her when he was a child.

Trina hasn’t seen her husband Robert since before his birthday, July 12. He isn’t allowed to visit her. So he called her. But that stopped when she was put on a ventilator. Then he kept in contact using FaceTime. But that too, had to stop. Then he texted her, but now, even that form of communication has stopped.

WHAT HAPPENED

The way Dee remembered it, his mother got sick about five weeks ago, when his sister Gina, and her son Daniel came to the house coughing. Trina had trouble breathing shortly after that, and went to the hospital.

She was placed on oxygen. Then she was admitted, monitored, and put on a ventilator for about a week. When she stabilized, she was taken off the ventilator, and placed on dialysis and positioned on her stomach to sleep. She also had a line inserted to track her blood pressure (plasmapheresis). Dee says he has gotten word that his mother’s organs are not responding and are shutting down.

While all of this has been happening inside the walls of the hospital, Trina’s family is grappling with an uncertain future.

On July 20, Robert received a call from his wife’s doctor telling him to “Pray for the best. Expect the worst.”

THE VELASCOS

Robert and Trina have been married nearly 50 years.

When Dee described his parents marriage, he told stories of Robert buying flowers for Trina – not because it was her birthday, or their anniversary or Mother’s Day, but just because.

He told of the little notes his father would give his mother saying things like, “Love you, Robert,” “Thinking of you,” “Hope you have a good day.”

Dee said as a little kid, he would ask his mom, “How come dad writes you notes?”

“That’s what you do when you love somebody,” his mother answered.

At the Thanksgiving dinner table the year that Trina underwent triple-bypass surgery, Dee said he finished giving the blessing and his father said he wanted to add something.

Robert said, “God, I thank you for giving me more years to be with my wife.”

“That’s when I realized how much my dad really loves my mom,” Dee said.

“They were planning on another trip to Hawaii for their anniversary in mid-October,” Dee said. “They had been there twice already.”

“I look at them as an example of how a marriage should be … When my mom was in surgery and she had to be in a wheelchair, my dad converted the bathroom to fit her needs.

“I have never ever seen him [Robert] once complain. He opens the car door to get her out. He does the same thing to get her in. He never complains. He never moans and groans about it. He just does it,” he said.

The most recent communications Dee had from his mom were texts on July 6 and 7. “She put a little heart symbol and then she text[ed] ‘Hello. It is only me. I love you, Mom.’”

One day later she sent another text, “I am wholeheartedly. I am going to [be] okay. Love you all.”

“I always call my Mom each week and to have no communication with her since then is unbearable and I feel like a small child looking out the window to see if she’ll walk up to the door,” Dee said. “As my Dad texts me of changes of my Mom, I put my finger across the phone screen because I don’t want to see that [message].

“Some people may say “why doesn’t your dad call instead? It’s because I know he is in agony and turmoil. When I asked him to send me wedding pictures of them, he said he couldn’t look at them because it would be too emotional. I want to hear my Mom’s voice again.”

Gina, who was also diagnosed with COVID-19, has quarantined herself at their parents’ house. Dee was not sure if Daniel was with her.

“Even where I’m at right now in my life, I don’t know how it’s going to be if she doesn’t make it. I always ask people how do they do it,” Dee said. “I guess you’ve got to wait.

“I guess no matter how old you are you still look at your mom and dad as ... I guess from a little kid’s point of view,” he said.

“I don’t know how to feel, I feel anger at my sister for not taking precautionary measures. I feel sad and worried for my father because he misses my Mom so much and not being able to see him is agonizing.

“I wonder how and when it will hit me, will I be ok, because I’m talking and looking at my Dad as the pillar of our family. I know it’s a part of life that we all will die, but to have my Mom die this way is just not right and for my Dad to not be there by her side is robbing him of that, which he will never ever get back.

“I truly believe my Dad would not even think twice about seeing her despite the chance of him getting the virus, because he loves her that much that it wouldn’t matter.

“As I’m writing this I [am] trying to hold back the tears because it’s so unreal and I hate it, I want to see my Mom and hold her hand one more time and pray with her, so I can know she will be in heaven. My hope is in Jesus Christ.

“I’m not ready to let go.”

As this story was being put together, Trina Velasco passed away on Wednesday, July 22 at 2:10 pm.

By Beth Blakeman

Associate Editor

Was it a conspiracy? Wrongful termination?  Inside politics?  Lack of communication? A complaint filed against Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services by former CEO David Conejo and his management company Healthcare Integrity, in U. S. District Court on July 23 indicates it was a mix of these and more.

The complaint being brought under the Lanham Act, 15 U. S. C. § 1125 (a) (1)(B) and New Mexico common law, claims damages resulting from the publication of false and misleading information misrepresenting the quality of Conejo’s services and commercial activities.

It also lists, breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, civil conspiracy, defamation, and false light, naming the hospital and individual defendants including: Valory Wangler, Laura Hammons, Neil Jackson, Felicia Adams, Andrea Walker, Christopher Hoover, Mary Poel, Jaylyn Ellis and John Does 1-10 and Jane Does 1-10.

In a document featuring 342 separate points, the offices of Robles, Rael & Anaya, P. C. enumerated claims detailing issues ranging from obstruction that kept HCI from exercising its option to purchase RMCHCS, to early termination that did not allow Conejo enough time to fix problems at the hospital.

The complaint characterizes social media statements, television interviews which appeared on video sharing sites, a public demonstration and contact of Change.org, an online petition site. as part of a campaign to damage the business interests and reputation of HCI and CEO David Conejo, in order to “induce the Board of Trustees to wrongfully terminate the Management Agreement with HCI, allowing individual Defendants to enter into a new contract for management services with RMCHCS.”

Contentious issues that arose at the hospital before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, included the location of documents requested for a “special audit,”  which received mention as being a technical Dropbox blunder.

COVID-19

After the novel coronavirus made its appearance in Southwestern New Mexico, other concerns took center stage, such as the need for personal protective equipment, and who was responsible for acquiring it. Differences of opinion about these responsibilities built tensions at the hospital. Conejo told the Gallup Sun during an interview published on May 15, that the hospital was well-stocked at the time.

“That’s a distribution problem, it’s not a shortage problem,” Conejo said. He went on to explain that whoever took the masks out of their cases needed to make sure that they had the appropriate mask sizes for the appropriate areas.

“ …  If people grabbed a bunch of masks that were too big and set them on the shelves. And later someone else goes to use them and they’re too big, that’s not because the CEO bought the wrong sizes. We had plenty of the right sizes,” he said.

CONTRACT NURSES

Who let go of contract nurses and whether they were fired or not, after Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham pressed the pause button on elective surgeries was another of the matters addressed in the complaint.

At the time, one of the contract nurses, Mike Kenyon, told the Sun, he was let go on April 3, 22 days before the end of his contract.

Conejo said the decision was one based on economics and that the hospital lived up to its part of the agreement. He said, “If RMCH wants to cancel the contract, they are required to give a two week notice … and they pay for that, but they don’t have to pay the rest of [the] contract.”

The complaint says, “These nurses were temporary staff who are the direct employees of staffing agencies and whose contracts at RMCHCS had either been 1) allowed to expire or 2) were near expiration and terminated a few weeks early, according to the terms of their contracts. In fact, it was the Board’s decision—not CEO Conejo’s—to terminate the agency nurse contracts, which it did after learning that the revenue from elective procedures would be cut off.”

NCI

Also in dispute is the decision made on April 10, when 22 patients were accepted at the hospital from Na Nizhoozhi Center in a single night. The number of patients overwhelmed the 60-bed hospital and overburdened the staff and resources.

When asked about the decision to keep the patients at RMCHCS,  Conejo told the Sun on May 13, “I’m not a clinician, so I wasn’t calling any shots on the treatment or disposition of patients. And the decision to bring 22 patients from NCI occurred in the middle of the night. I was informed of it upon my arrival at work the following morning [with a comment] that says [sic] ‘oh by the way, they were getting ready to close NCI last night and we made the decision to go ahead and accept those patients here.’

“ …  It was not my position to override the command center team, because you had clinical staff on that team. And if I had, then people would be criticizing and saying, ‘how could he make that decision and he’s not a clinician,” Conejo continued. “And there were five clinicians in that room who could make that decision. So it’s an action that should have taken place immediately, but it didn’t.”

The 61-page document also makes mention of closed door meetings and private communications between parties where it says, “Defendants Valory Wangler, Laura Hammons, Neil Jackson, Felicia Adams, Christopher Hoover, and as-yet unidentified John Does 1-10 and Jane Does 1-10 members of staff or the Board, conspired and waged a campaign to intentionally and or negligently interfere with HCI’s contract with RMCHCS.”

The complaint calls for a jury trial for all claims for which the plaintiffs are entitled to a jury.

Conejo and HCI are asking for actual, compensatory, punitive and treble damages, as well as pre-and post-judgment interest, attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses incurred, and any other relief the court deems proper.

A group of New Mexico legislators has gathered in Cloudcroft — once rated as one of the nation’s most overlooked and underrated destination spots — to help fashion New Mexico’s path through the global pandemic.

Three days of meetings that started July 15 at Cloudcroft High School could direct the course of some vital affairs in the state, including how the economy is reopened and how schools and college campuses come alive.

“New Mexico’s economic future could well be determine[d] by the testimony to be presented at this week’s LFC [Legislative Finance Committee] meetings. I have served on the LFC for years and I feel these are the most critical hearings I will ever participate in,” Sen. Steven Neville, R-Farmington, said. “It is a desperate time in our state and we are desperate to find answers and solutions on how to reopen our state’s economy, how to reopen our schools next month and how our college campuses will operate and educate students under COVID restrictions.”

He was joined by another member of the LFC in his intense  interest in the meetings.

“The presenters at this week’s LFC meetings make some of the most imperative testimony we will ever hear as members of the interim committee,” Sen. Bill Burt, R-Alamogordo said. “We are working diligently to find answers and solutions in how to get back our economy and our lives back to normal under these restrictive health orders.”

David Abbey director of the LFC, told the Gallup Sun, “There’s a lot of anxiety and worry about our economic prospects. Statewide we lost over 100K jobs and got about 20K back … Some of the jobs may never come back.

“Members expressed some concern about the slow pace of reopening … We’ve also got to try to keep things [that are] open as safe as possible.”

The opening day of the meetings in Cloudcroft featured a presentation by State Auditor Brian Colón, who told the Sun that the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a need for best practices, oversight, streamlining and risk assessment against a wave of new types of fraud that emerged after the arrival of the COVID-19 virus.

Colón described one of those as a telephone call that promises to get people who are waiting, to the front of the unemployment benefits line — for a fee.

He said there are plenty of spoofs and efforts to relieve people, and the state treasury, of their money by promising counterfeit goods and services.

Cyber security and exposure to ransom ware are among the risks cropping up as people found themselves staying home more during the pandemic and receiving more email.

Another trick to be wary of, he warned, is one in which a vendor says there has been a change of their company’s mailing address and requests payment at a new address.

Colón said he encourages the two-step security process when using online bank accounts and for other online activities.

The state auditor heads up a working group known as The COVID-19 Funding Accountability Group. Focused on risks to the public in this difficult time, the group is made up of representatives from the N.M. state procurement office, the general services division, the department of finance, the legislative finance committee, the public education department, and just recently, the state department of health has been invited to join.

The LFC and Colón’s office, the OSA, issued their first joint risk advisory June 16 to advance best practices.

The two-page bulletin focuses on mitigating risk in securing emergency procurements such as masks, gowns, and ventilators.

It concentrates on the use of statewide price agreements and shopping around to prevent price gouging. Also included in the advisory are recommendations about investigating unfamiliar vendors, avoiding prepayment and abiding by transparency laws.

Colón encouraged preventative education in addition to oversight.

In the joint advisory, he pointed out that communities can report governmental waste, fraud, or abuse anonymously at (866) OSA-FRAUD or at saonm.org.

Callers can also speak to an investigator at (505) 476-3800.

Fraudulent vendors can be reported at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by calling (505) 827-0472.

Other speakers at the meeting included guest presenters from Virgin Galactic Initiatives at Spaceport, N.M. and for Permian Basin drilling and production.

Abbey said oil and gas represent about half the state’s revenues. While they have come back “maybe,” he says there is still a huge downside risk.

“If we don’t keep drilling, we’re going to lose production on a long term basis,” he added.

He said the spotlight on the second day of the meeting would include education with Secretary of Education Ryan Stewart speaking by phone.

Abbey’s concern is that while most classes will be conducted virtually for the first weeks of school, the distance learning is not going to be as effective as in-person learning.

The meetings will also tackle prison population classification. Abbey said inmates are classified using a system of six levels of security, and most of the inmates are at level three. He said if the state is over-classifying, it costs tens of millions of dollars.

In a typical year, the LFC meets once a month in different communities around the state for between two and four days all summer long. This year, because of the novel coronavirus, the meeting in Cloudcroft will be the last one held outside Santa Fe. The next meeting is scheduled for about a month from now.

Beginning Sept. 1, every agency will submit a request and presentation about budget needs, so the LFC can begin development of a budget for Fiscal Year 2022.

Abbey said he has great confidence in this group of lawmakers.

“They know what the needs are.”

He added that they work together in a bipartisan fashion.

By Beth Blakeman
Associate Editor